Winners and losers from Friday at F1’s Japanese GP

As China was a sprint weekend, Friday at the Japanese Grand Prix was only the second full Friday of practice the teams have had with the 2026 Formula 1 cars.With the caveat that it’s ‘only practice’, here are the early winners and losers emerging from the first day of on-track action.Loser: Red BullRed Bull spent the Chinese GP weekend stuck in the midfield fight, and there’s no evidence so far to suggest Suzuka will be much different.The midfield fight in FP27 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +1.308s8 Alex Albon (Williams) +1.363s9 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +1.365s10 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +1.376s11 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.399s12 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1.45 …